Interested in ancient environmental DNA, metagenomics, and bioinformatics?
Sign up for our PhD course in Ancient Environmental Genomics at the University of Copenhagen, 20 to 25 Sept 2026.
5 ECTS
Sign-up deadline: 1 Aug 2026
Read more and sign up: phdcourses.ku.dk/DetailKursus...
Can you believe that until now there were more genomes sequenced for the woolly mammoth than for living African elephants?
Today, we bring you the first genomic, continent-scale analyses of 232 high-quality genomes of both species, the savanna and forest elephant.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats Kevin! 🥳
Very excited to share our study of an ancient environmental genome extracted from lake sediment! It originates from a brown bear that lived around 9,600 years ago close to the last ice-sheet remains in northern Sweden, and has an unexpected mitochondrial haplogroup. 1/7 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Check this thread about our latest paper, written by one of the lead authors, @officialernst.bsky.social. It was such an exciting project!
Katja sampling a gorilla skull.
ICP2026 flyer
Meet our keynote speakers 💁♂️
KATERINA GUSCHANSKI (@kguschan.bsky.social)
Katerina is expert in using genomics of museum collections to explore primate evolution, conservation genetics, and the historical impact of environmental change.
Conference info & registration 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org
How did catastrophic black death and myxomatosis outbreaks on an isolated island affect the genomes of humans & rabbits, respectively?
And how did the microbes evolve in response to this?
PhD position @cpgsthlm.bsky.social with Anders Götherström and me as supervisors!
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Stockholm in only 83 days 😍
Our conference will be packed with exciting oral presentations 💁♂️, poster sessions 🧾, coffee breaks ☕, and pre-conference workshops 👷♀️
Take a look at the preliminary program ⬇️⬇️⬇️
"The Cemetery at the Edge of the Islamic World"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX1u...
Evolutionary Insights by Anthropology net Podcast
Map of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, showing the Islamic areas of influence and Ibiza.
Ricardo, lead author of the article, processing one of the samples in the lab.
New paper alert 🚨
Researchers at #CPGStlhm have analyzed ancient genomes from an Islamic cemetery in Ibiza (950–1150 CE) 🏖️
They found a highly diverse community with ancestry from Europe and North Africa!
The paper was published in @natcomms.nature.com
OA link www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogeny of Mycobacterium leprae.
Microscopy image of Mycobacterium leprae.
By investigating the presence of pathogens in the remains, the authors detected one individual carrying Mycobacterium leprae 🦠 (the bacteria responsible for leprosy), providing insight into the health of medieval Ibiza societies.
Meet our keynote speakers 💁♂️
LUCY VAN DORP (@ugiatucl.bsky.social)
Lucy is a leading expert in ancient microbe research, using ancient DNA to reconstruct the origins, evolution, and spread of major human pathogens throughout history.
Conference info & registration 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org
The MicrobeAtlas database: Global trends and insights into Earth’s microbial ecosystems www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #microbiome
An undisturbed seventeenth-century shipwreck is a time capsule offering a chance to encounter people of the past mid-step. For maritime archaeologist Niklas Eriksson the underwater world is an archaeological treasure trove rich in stories of everyday life from centuries ago
www.su.se/english/news...
We have a new preprint! - "Ancient Pathogen Genomics in Africa – Current Evidence and Future Directions"
A review of current evidence, challenges, and opportunities for studying past epidemics and host–pathogen evolution using ancient DNA from African contexts.
www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...
Job alert: open position for a Professor or Associate Professor of Computational Genomics in Health and Disease at University College London.
Based in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment of UCL, and UGI, and funded by the UCL Health Strategy.
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... 🧪
Really happy to share our new preprint on the co-occurrance of Y.pestis and Erysipelothrix spp. during prehistory. 🔥🔥🔥
In the study, we find the earliest evidence to date of Y.pestis in Southern Europe and 60 new Erysipelothrix genomes spanning 20k years 🦠🐄🚶♂️⌛
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
This is really not a headline I expected to have to read in 2026.
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
🚨 Save the Date!
We’re thrilled to announce #SPAAM8 – a gathering of experts in ancient metagenomics research! 🌎
📅 When: June 22nd 2026
📍Where: Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪 (and online)
Stay tuned for updates and registration details!
Interested in using aDNA time-series datasets to estimate selection?
Our study "Assessing Ancient DNA Sampling Strategies for Natural Selection Inference in Humans Using Allele Frequency Time Series Data" is now out in GBE! doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... @genomebiolevol.bsky.social @cegamorim.bsky.social
Great news from our research group! 🎉 We congratulate Mustafa Özkan, Kıvılcım Başak Vural, Ezgi Altınışık, and Duygu Deniz Kazancı, who have received significant support for their projects in recent months! 👏
Details below 👇
#Hacettepe #METU #AncientDNA #aDNA #TUBITAK
📢 We're hiring a postdoc (33 months) in human evolutionary genomics / paleogenomics / statistical genetics, Paris 🇫🇷
Project on selection on disease-associated variants, integrating ancient genomes, GWAS, and Ancestral Rec. Graphs.
Start May 2026 (flexible).
Apply here: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Institut Pasteur (@pasteur.fr) is recruiting new young PIs to open new groups in the Institute. Deadline is February 9th! Don't miss the opportunity!
Out in @science.org today:
A 5500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia
Huge congrats to @davidebozzi.bsky.social Naz, Miguel, Lars, Anna, and Betsy for the amazing work. It’s an honor to collaborate with you.
Treponemal diseases might have been with us much longer than previously thought! In our recent study, we used ancient DNA to reconstruct a 5,500-year-old 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘮 genome, revealing a previously unknown divergent subspecies.
You can check it out here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fascinating that the #NobelPeaceCenter felt the need to clarify this today.
Someone clearly needed the memo.
So proud that this is out 🐺⏳🧬🦏. First paper as a senior author (co-shared with @lovedalen.bsky.social; thanks for a great opportunity) and led by my awesome former MSc student @solveiggudjonsd.bsky.social and a brilliant CPG postdoc @edanalord.bsky.social (1/n)
OA: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Read our new paper in Genome Biology & Evolution to learn more about how sequencing the genome from a 14,000 year old wolf puppy's last meal yielded novel insights into the woolly rhino's extinction:
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
📷 Mietje Germonpré
Thanks to Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer (@scs22.bsky.social) and Carles Lalueza-Fox for their commentary on our work about ancient RNAs in the extinct wolly mammoth
A trunkload of ancient RNA
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Researchers recover a woolly rhino genome from inside a frozen wolf's stomach. The work marks the first time an Ice Age animal’s complete genome has been recovered from tissue preserved inside another ancient animal.
New study from @cpgsthlm.bsky.social
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...